1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a steering control apparatus for a vehicle and, more particularly, to a steering control apparatus for a vehicle which controls a steering operation so that the vehicle moves within a lane by recognizing the lane by a forward image of the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in order to safely move a vehicle, a vehicle steering control apparatus has been suggested which controls a steering operation by recognizing a guide line such as a white line provided on a road surface so that the vehicle moves along the guide line without turning aside from the guide line.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No.5-294250 discloses a safety device provided on a vehicle. The safety device detects a following vehicle which is moving behind the safety device equipped vehicle when the safety device equipped vehicle is moving to the lane on which the following vehicle is moving while a direction indicating operation is performed. The safety device performs an alarm operation when the following vehicle is detected. Additionally, the safety device performs a steering control operation to maintain the safety device equipped vehicle to move along the current moving lane when a direction indicating operation is not performed.
In the above-mentioned conventional safety device, unless a direction indicating operation is performed, the safety device equipped vehicle is maintained to move along the vehicle moving lane so that the safety device equipped vehicle does not move out of the vehicle moving lane. Thus, there may be a case in which a steering operation of a driver interferes with a steering control operation of the safety device. For example, if there is an object on a road, and a driver performs a steering operation so as to avoid the object by moving out of the vehicle moving lane, the safety device performs a steering control operation so as to maintain the vehicle within the vehicle moving lane. Accordingly, in such a case, there is a problem in that the steering operation of the driver interferes with the steering control operation of the safety device.